ANALYSIS OF VISITORS’ EXPERIENCES AT THE OLD MELBOURNE GAOL
Visitation to the dark past of history is growing where more tourist is confronting concepts of mortality. Still, it appears to have minimal research on dark tourist experiences in the context of prison museums, particularly the Old Melbourne Gaol. The aim of the research is to analyse visitors’ experiences and provide recommendation for improvement. The relevance of the research is understanding dark tourist experiences will give insight into how service offerings can be improved in prison museums. The researcher conducted a qualitative study using thematic analysis to understand visitor experiences better and provide recommendation for future visitation. Purposive sampling was used to explore mixed reviews from the widely used platform called TripAdvisor. One of the key findings is that most visitors are international tourists accompanied by family or friends visiting towards the end of the year, which means that service offerings should be geared towards this group. Furthermore, the overall visitor experience is positive, and emerging themes narrates the authenticity of carceral life, interactive experience and exciting reenactments at the Old Melbourne Goal. Lastly, the findings reveal the need to reconsider the role of customer service as it influences the overall satisfaction of visitors and strengthen substantial aspects of service offerings to increase visitation and enhance the visitor experience.